The Nineteen Arcana

Each character is different- in appearance, personality, habit, upbringing, memories; a person, when viewed as the sum of a whole, might appear to be part of a large archetype, but their natures are made up of a million intricate parts, and no two natures are identical.

To reflect this, at character creation, each character chooses three different Arcana. Each Arcana grants three different effects: a Characteristic Bonus, Character Aptitudes, and Persona Aptitudes. These will be explained below.

Once all three of your Arcana have been chosen, designate one to be your Primary Arcana. This is the Arcana that best represents your PC's greatest attributes, although by no means does it represent all of your PC's personality. Your Primary Arcana should reflect your PC's personality, especially as viewed from an external source as first glance. Your PC should avoid reflecting the Arcana instead. Your other two Arcana are Secondary Arcana.

Mechanically, there are three major differences between a Primary Arcana and Secondary Arcana.
1. The Primary Arcana your PC chooses makes them a valid Social Link for said Arcana. If you pick the Magician Arcana as your Primary, for example, then other PCs may treat you as a Social Link of the Magician Arcana with all that entails.
3. The Primary Arcana gives you more Characteristic Bonuses.
4. Every Arcana has an Exemplary. You gain the Exemplary of your Primary Arcana.-- Back to Top --

Arcana Qualities

Characteristic Bonuses

Characteristic Bonuses are simple. Upon selecting a specific Arcana, you automatically gain the listed amount to your base Characteristic Bonuses.

Primary Arcana selections give you all the Characteristic Bonuses listed; Secondary Arcana give you half. If you have a choice of two +5s, you choose one; if you have a choice of a +10, it becomes a +5 instead.

Example:William Redspring chooses Lovers as his Primary Arcana, boosting his Fellowship Score to 30. As his Secondaries he selects Justice and Fortune. From Justice he has a choice of either +5 Perception or +5 Intelligence; he chooses the +5 Intelligence, raising his Intelligence Score to 25. That leaves Fortune. Ordinarily, Fortune would allow him to add +10 to any Characteristic, but as it's a Secondary, he is only permitted to add +5 to any Characteristic instead. He puts it into Agility, granting him an Agility score of 25. So far his sheet looks like this.-- Back to Top --

Character Aptitudes

Every Arcana has three Aptitudes, which work just like they do in OW by determining the XP cost of talents, skills and advancements. On selecting a specific Arcana, you most choose two Aptitudes from the three provided.-- Back to Top --

Arcana Persona Aptitudes

Every Arcana has two Persona Aptitudes. Although each individual Persona comes with its own set of Aptitudes, the Persona Aptitudes are used for the purposes of creating the Custom Personas unique to each person.-- Back to Top --

Magic Characteristic

Every Arcana has a Magic Characteristic. When using Personae of this Arcana, you use the noted Characteristic as your Magic Characteristic. Furthermore, the Magic Characteristic of your Primary Arcana is used to calculate your base SP pool.-- Back to Top --

Arcana Exemplaries

Every Arcana has an'Exemplaries'. Exemplaries are special abilities unique to that Arcana. When creating a character, you gain the Exemplary of your Primary Arcana. As your Evoker Rank increases, your Exemplary powers up.

Persona

Every Arcana has an associated list of Persona, each list numbering ten Personae. Each Persona entry has information about its elemental weaknesses and strengths, its preset talents, its Bonuses and its Wound Pool.

Persona List

Every Arcana has an associated list of Persona; ten Persona per Arcana, one for each grade. All are listed below for each Arcana, organised into the Persona List. Each entry in the Persona List lists that Persona's Grade, name, their relationship with the four physical elements and the six magical elements (if any), their Traits and Abilities. At the start of the game, you start with the Level 1 Persona of each of your Arcana.

Each Arcana uses a different Characteristic to calculate its Magic effectiveness; this will be listed at the top of the Persona List.

All Personae start with a 'kit' of Abilities natural for that Persona; these talents can be overwritten, as demonstrated in the Game Concepts section.

Furthermore, a Persona may have hidden abilities that require spending XP to reveal, marked in brackets on the Lists.